A day packed with sustainable showcases, collections and conversations have been a staple at the Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) for over a decade now. With FDCI joining hands with Lakmé Fashion Week for yet another physical-digital event, the Sustainable Fashion Day at the showcase is only getting better.
The New Normal
The kicked off with ‘Bylanes - Crafting the New Normal’ by RISE Worldwide, a documentary that captures the current state of business for the Indian artisan. The documentary showcased the crafts hubs of Chanderi, Srinagar and Kutch, highlighting the pushback experienced by artisan clusters due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the various ways digital and social media played a role to help the Indian artisan recover. The youth belonging to artisan clusters have played a unique role, paving the way by growing businesses using digital resources, thus helping long lost crafts as well as growing into micro-entrepreneurs.
The Better Fabrics
Making a comeback at FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week was Cocccon with their latest collection, Abundance Paradise. The brand, which specialises in fairtrade & organic peace silk clothing, showcased a new line of luxury loungewear, streetwear, dresses in pristine whites, pastels and bright neons featuring unique textural details.
The silk used by Cocccon, cultivated in Jharkhand, involves allowing silkworms to complete their full life cycle and grow into beautiful butterflies. Additionally, the brand doesn’t use any synthetic, chemical-based trims for their garments, and promotes the use of natural materials like bamboo or cane for boning as well as low or zero impact dyes for printing and dyeing.
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Heritage Textile and Fashion Designer Gaurang Shah presented a physical showcase, Chaand - a collection of Jamdani Sarees from across India, inspired by the rising of the moon and radiant moonlight. In an old-world ambience, models walked barefoot on the ramp, dressed in ethereal and stunning sarees, featuring colourful floral motifs and gold detailing. The showstopper, actor Taapsee Pannu walked the runway, quite fittingly as ghazal singer Anup Jalota sang the classic, ‘chaudhvin ka chaand”. She wore a rich pink and sea green saree with floral motifs and contrasting borders.
The intrinsically woven jamdani was sourced from Dhaka, Benaras, Kota, Srikakulam, Uppada, Venkatgiri, Kashmir and Paithan.
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Eka’s digital showcase featured both menswear and womenswear. True to the brand’s muted-chic aesthetic, the collection saw easy silhouettes in sombre tones and fabrics like natural silk, wool, merino wool, and tussar silk. The pieces featured shibori, appliques, and hand-block prints with kantha-embroidered detailing, making the collection more unique.
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The Circular Way Forward
R|Elan, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program, presented the winner of the Circular Design Challenge- Bandit. Bandit’s showcase was truly one that represented the finest form of circular fashion. The collection, called Shourai, which means ‘the future’, in Japanese, showcased a range of street style pieces as well as bags and other accessories.
The materials used in the collection included their trademark tarpaulin, as well as new materials like billboard flex. Accessories were made using used canvas and car seat belts. The real highlight of the showcase was the unmissable glimpse of the jewellery collection made using repurposed metals such as aluminium and copper combined with gold and diamonds.
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Staying true to the circular theme fashion is witnessing, designer brand Abraham and Thakore presentation of the collection made from recycled PET bottle yarns as a collaboration with R-Elan’s ‘fabric of the future’ – Greengold. The collection, Assemble. Disassemble. Reassemble, saw a range of glamourous evening wear. The collection featured saris and suits hand embroidered with sequins made from sheets of discarded PET materials and techniques like patchwork, hand stitching and applique on modern silhouettes like shift dresses, jackets and loungewear.
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Carbon Neutral Is The New Black
The Sustainable Fashion Day concluded with the highlight of the day, the TM X Satya Paul show by designer Rajesh Pratap Singh. The collection titled ‘The Master’s Words’ was a tribute to the late Satya Paul who passed away earlier this year and also marked the launch of the revolutionary Carbon zero TENCEL™ fibres. The fibres, apart from being carbon neutral also feature the functional benefits of standard TENCEL™ fibres like gentleness on the skin, long-lasting softness, enhanced breathability as well as colour retention.
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True to the Satya Paul signature aesthetic, the collection was colourful and vibrant, featuring bright suits, draped outfits, saris, casual streetwear silhouettes and much more. The showcase gave the regular runway a miss and saw a host of inclusive models lounging, grooving and casually posing in the lounge are created in the centre of the show area. The showstoppers, actors Rahul Bose and Tripti Dimri stood out in all black sharp suits. Overall, the message was clear- Sustainable is the new cool, sexy, fun and vibrant- all in one package and we’re all for it!